Posts tagged 'Nicola Horlick'

Masa joined the FT in 2009 and has worked on a number of desks across the paper, including Companies, Markets and Comment. She spent much of 2010 in New York covering the US equity markets. But earlier this year she finally saw the light and moved to Alphaville.

She started her career in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2007, timing it perfectly with the beginning of the credit crunch.

Hedge fund managers piled into the Marriott on Grosvenor Square earlier this week for London’s first Sohn conference. The headlines were dominated by Carson Block’s announcement that his next target was Olam International, but we wanted to give you a quick run through what the others had to say. Read more

Elsina, an investment company owned by Vincent Tchenguiz, the property tycoon, has moved to liquidate its dominant stake in a high-profile listed fund-of-funds, the FT reports. Mr Tchenguiz in 2009 overturned the management of the Aberdeen private equity fund, which invests in hedge and private equity funds. It had been called Bramdean Alternatives, and had been externally managed by Nicola Horlick’s Bramdean Asset Management. Mr Tchenguiz controls almost a third of the fund’s shares through Elsina. The board of the Aberdeen private equity fund has suggested a tender offer for the Elsina stake at a cash price of 65p a share in order to provide an exit. The board said that Elsina wished to realise its holding and had requested a proposal for the company to be liquidated. Elsina has not yet accepted the offer, and could push for a higher price. Elsina bought in at a £1 unit price when it launched in 2007.

In a shareholder vote carried out in Guernsey on Thursday, Tchenguiz secured 55.59 percent support to install his candidates to the board, with 44.41 percent voting against, one source familiar with the situation said. Read more

Nicola Horlick’s takeover approach for the alternative investment company managed by her firm has been rebuffed by the board. Horlick’s Petersfield Asset Management emerged last week as the company behind an approach for Bramdean Alternatives; no price or terms were disclosed. On Monday, Bramdean’s board said it would terminate talks with Petersfield and Horlick over any proposed offer. But Petersfield is not withdrawing its approach, meaning that Bramdean remains in an offer period.

Nicola Horlick has been revealed as the mystery party in talks with Bramdean Alternatives, the $178m alternative investment fund run by her asset management firm. The disclosure marks the latest twist in the battle for control of the fund, which had promised to name the potential bidder by June 9. Vincent Tchenguiz, the property entrepreneur who is the largest shareholder with 28.8%, has put forward other plans to be voted on by shareholders next week.

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

Bramdean Alternatives, the $182m alternative investment fund managed by Nicola Horlick’s Bramdean Asset Management, has been approached about a possible takeover. The offer by an unnamed bidder comes amid shareholder discontent after falls in the fund’s investments in private equity and hedge funds and the shares’ wide discount to asset value. Some 9.5% of Bramdean Alternatives was invested with funds run by Bernard Madoff, the disgraced financier.

The Madoff affair does indeed “raise questions”, as Nicola Horlick of Bramdean Alternatives (which had an 8.5% allocation to Madoff’s firm) said in a swipe on Monday at the “systemic failure” of US regulators. But in Lex’s view, Horlick’s complaint appears disingenuous and the questions are principally over the judgment of fund managers who willingly signed away large sums of money – not the framework in which they operate.

Fund manager and FT Alphaville columnist Nicola Horlick has raised £131m for the launch of a new alternative investment fund, which is due to be listed on the LSE next week.

Bramdean Alternatives, a Guernsey-based fund of private equity and hedge funds which has a minimum investment of just £1,000, is an attempt by Ms Horlick to bring alternative investing to the masses, offering diversified investment across alternative and speciality asset classes. It has already committed to funds run by Terra Firma, Coller International, Thomas H Lee and SVG. Read more

Nicola Horlick this week announced the launch of Bramdean Alternatives, a new fund of hedge and private equity funds, that will be listed on the London market in early July. She is contributing weekly pieces to FT Alphaville while on an investor roadshow in the UK.

I admit it. I am a Today Programme addict. I love to listen to John Humphrys demolishing politicians whilst eating my bran flakes and applying a flash of pink lipstick before making my way to the office. Even the business coverage has improved over the past few years, with Jeff Randall and my old friend Robert Peston doing a lot in the role of business editor to change the BBC view that business is fundamentally a bad thing. Read more

As if by magic, no sooner had our guest writer Nicola Horlick put to pixel her argument that we are set for a seismic shift in allocations to alternative assets, this arrives: “Institutional investors set to invest $85bn into hedge funds.”

Data collected by Preqin Hedge indicates that institutions alone will pump a cool $85bn of new money into hedge funds and funds of funds over the next 12 to 18 months. Read more

Let’s cut to the chase: alternative assets are entering the mainstream. What we are about to witness is nothing less than a seismic shift in asset allocation.

The Financial Services Authority is nearing the end of a period of consultation during which it has been considering whether retail investors should be allowed access to alternative investment funds. And APCIMS is altering its three principal private client indices to include a weighting to hedge funds and property at the expense of traditional asset classes. Read more

Well, temporarily… The chief executive of Bramdean Asset Management and the nearest thing the British asset management industry has got to a household name, is currently on embarked on a tour of the UK to discuss issues surrounding alternative investments. Along the way she has agreed to provide FT Alphaville with a series of weekly posts, explaining her view of the investment landscape.

Today the fund manager — best known for her traditional, long-only approach — describes what she sees as a seismic shift into alternative assets. Read more